Excellent post. The one problem I have with the analogy is that pica is almost completely objective; it involves eating non-food items and is (usually) caused by a mineral deficiency. Akrasia isn’t quite like that. It’s entirely possible that doing Z will cause you to stop doing X, but there does not appear to be an objective sense in which Z is the real thing you need and X was a misguided proxy. Plenty of people play World of Warcraft and never go outside, and they can continue to be excellent, cheerful Warcraft-players. Pica, by contrast, can be harmful itself (ice is one of the most pleasant non-food substances one could pick) and also indicates the body not functioning correctly; mineral deficiencies have both measurable effects on people and (I think) experiential effects in the sense of poor health/energy/whatever mineral deficiencies do. Akrasia seems to lack such objective referents; one could sit down and play WoW for the rest of one’s life and, in theory, be perfectly happy about it.
one could sit down and play WoW for the rest of one’s life and, in theory, be perfectly happy about it.
Someone who is well-integratedly happy to play WoW for a lifetime sounds weird, but not akratic, to me.
As for whether, if the desire for WoW is a misfiring of the brain in response to some unconscious impulse that could be more efficiently satisfied by watching a space shuttle take off (for example), “need” is the right word to apply to the experience of watching a space shuttle taking off, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like an ordinary-language-compatible use of the word “want” to call it a want (or by the same token a desire), so I appropriated the word “need” in much the same way one might use it to say “I need a hug” or “I need a minute” or “I need a cigarette” even when one’s long-term physiological health doesn’t depend on affection/time/nicotine.
one could sit down and play WoW for the rest of one’s life and, in theory, be perfectly happy about it
Not according to theories I’m familiar with.
It seems like such a person would have bad character; lacking acculturation to the relevant human virtues, one would miss out on essential parts of the good life.
But then, maybe WoW is a better proxy for social interaction and such than I’m giving it credit for.
lacking acculturation to the relevant human virtues, one would miss out on essential parts of the good life.
I’d be curious as to what parts of the good life are essential, what virtues are relevant, and what evidence supports said claims.
I admit that it’s very unlikely that playing video games for most of one’s life corresponds with the culturally-infused values many people have, but it doesn’t seem that it must be fundamentally opposed to the values that one develops. It’s decidedly unlikely one would develop the values necessary to enjoy gaming for one’s whole life, but it certainly seems possible. Then again, if it were fully consistent with your values, it wouldn’t be akratic.
And CronoDAS is right; if you’re not familiar with WoW, you might not know that almost all of the people who are really addicted are also involved within the game socially. At a certain point it becomes impossible to progress without 9-24 other human players who usually coordinate via VOIP, so while players may be sitting in their parent’s basement, they are actually socializing to some degree. This (combined with the random reward system) is why it’s so addictive.
Some people really do manage to get a high level of social interaction out of WoW; there are a lot of actual people involved that you can interact with, and the more difficult challenges tend to require the kind of organization and teamwork you’d find in a local sports team. On the other hand, I personally am not one of them.
one could sit down and play WoW for the rest of one’s life and, in theory, be perfectly happy about it.
Yes, but will (s)he reproduce?
Iron deficiency impedes survival and reproduction. Same with WoW—instead of spending resources on raising one’s tribal status, getting a good mate and having their children survive to reproductive age, one is spending time and resources on raising status in a nonexistent tribe—its members very rarely meet, let alone mate.
I feel like we ought to start letting go of evolutionary goals as if they are our own. I explicitly do not wish to reproduce. I’d enjoy being a father but I’d be plenty happy adopting and raising a child who already exists and is parentless. A higher incidence of shared alleles and some related cultural temporal idea of “my genetic child” mean nothing to me. There’s some gut instinct for being a genetic father, but it’s minor. Evolution doesn’t really give a shit about my happiness (i.e. utility function) and the feeling is mutual.
spending resources on raising one’s tribal status, getting a good mate and having their children survive to reproductive age
Last I checked, I do not live in the savanna. These qualities are no longer associated with reproductive fitness in Western societies with even moderate social support networks.
More to the point, why should I care? You were out there having kids, I was in here getting epic loots and pwning n00bs. You like what you did. I like what I did. There’s nothing to say that either of us was “right.” As a fact about the world, more of your alleles will exist in future generations. Also as a fact about the world, my avatar will have more achievement points than yours. We’ll both be thoroughly dead. You are more successful by evolutionary standards, and probably by social ones as well, but I don’t care, because I’m more successful by my standards, which frankly are the only ones I care about, and reason alone cannot say that your standards are in any sense better than mine.
Excellent post. The one problem I have with the analogy is that pica is almost completely objective; it involves eating non-food items and is (usually) caused by a mineral deficiency. Akrasia isn’t quite like that. It’s entirely possible that doing Z will cause you to stop doing X, but there does not appear to be an objective sense in which Z is the real thing you need and X was a misguided proxy. Plenty of people play World of Warcraft and never go outside, and they can continue to be excellent, cheerful Warcraft-players. Pica, by contrast, can be harmful itself (ice is one of the most pleasant non-food substances one could pick) and also indicates the body not functioning correctly; mineral deficiencies have both measurable effects on people and (I think) experiential effects in the sense of poor health/energy/whatever mineral deficiencies do. Akrasia seems to lack such objective referents; one could sit down and play WoW for the rest of one’s life and, in theory, be perfectly happy about it.
Someone who is well-integratedly happy to play WoW for a lifetime sounds weird, but not akratic, to me.
As for whether, if the desire for WoW is a misfiring of the brain in response to some unconscious impulse that could be more efficiently satisfied by watching a space shuttle take off (for example), “need” is the right word to apply to the experience of watching a space shuttle taking off, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like an ordinary-language-compatible use of the word “want” to call it a want (or by the same token a desire), so I appropriated the word “need” in much the same way one might use it to say “I need a hug” or “I need a minute” or “I need a cigarette” even when one’s long-term physiological health doesn’t depend on affection/time/nicotine.
Not according to theories I’m familiar with.
It seems like such a person would have bad character; lacking acculturation to the relevant human virtues, one would miss out on essential parts of the good life.
But then, maybe WoW is a better proxy for social interaction and such than I’m giving it credit for.
I’d be curious as to what parts of the good life are essential, what virtues are relevant, and what evidence supports said claims.
I admit that it’s very unlikely that playing video games for most of one’s life corresponds with the culturally-infused values many people have, but it doesn’t seem that it must be fundamentally opposed to the values that one develops. It’s decidedly unlikely one would develop the values necessary to enjoy gaming for one’s whole life, but it certainly seems possible. Then again, if it were fully consistent with your values, it wouldn’t be akratic.
And CronoDAS is right; if you’re not familiar with WoW, you might not know that almost all of the people who are really addicted are also involved within the game socially. At a certain point it becomes impossible to progress without 9-24 other human players who usually coordinate via VOIP, so while players may be sitting in their parent’s basement, they are actually socializing to some degree. This (combined with the random reward system) is why it’s so addictive.
Some people really do manage to get a high level of social interaction out of WoW; there are a lot of actual people involved that you can interact with, and the more difficult challenges tend to require the kind of organization and teamwork you’d find in a local sports team. On the other hand, I personally am not one of them.
Yes, but will (s)he reproduce?
Iron deficiency impedes survival and reproduction. Same with WoW—instead of spending resources on raising one’s tribal status, getting a good mate and having their children survive to reproductive age, one is spending time and resources on raising status in a nonexistent tribe—its members very rarely meet, let alone mate.
I feel like we ought to start letting go of evolutionary goals as if they are our own. I explicitly do not wish to reproduce. I’d enjoy being a father but I’d be plenty happy adopting and raising a child who already exists and is parentless. A higher incidence of shared alleles and some related cultural temporal idea of “my genetic child” mean nothing to me. There’s some gut instinct for being a genetic father, but it’s minor. Evolution doesn’t really give a shit about my happiness (i.e. utility function) and the feeling is mutual.
Last I checked, I do not live in the savanna. These qualities are no longer associated with reproductive fitness in Western societies with even moderate social support networks.
More to the point, why should I care? You were out there having kids, I was in here getting epic loots and pwning n00bs. You like what you did. I like what I did. There’s nothing to say that either of us was “right.” As a fact about the world, more of your alleles will exist in future generations. Also as a fact about the world, my avatar will have more achievement points than yours. We’ll both be thoroughly dead. You are more successful by evolutionary standards, and probably by social ones as well, but I don’t care, because I’m more successful by my standards, which frankly are the only ones I care about, and reason alone cannot say that your standards are in any sense better than mine.